Luck Be A Lady, Tonight
by SoundedSummer
Summary: Fate works in mysterious ways. Tony Stark knew that, but he never would have expected anything like this. Fate kicked him in the balls and now he's got a little boy who needs him. What's a Mother to do?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: This is adopted from njchrispatrick, and this entire first chapter is his work. I am posting it with permission. All further chapter will be my own.**

**Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKR, and Avengers is Marvel**

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><p>Lily stormed into her apartment, slamming the door behind her. She pulled off her coat and tossed it haphazardly toward the coat rack, her scowl deepening when it fell to the floor. Her scarf, hat, and icy boots landed on top of it.<p>

She stomped into her kitchen and grabbed a bottle of beer from her fridge, popping the top off and taking a deep swig of it. This was followed by a loud belch.

"What's got your panties in a twist?" asked a voice behind her. Lily just gripped her bottle tighter and didn't turn around.

"None of your business," she muttered as she took another drink. There was a moment of silence before she heard the sound of shoes clicking on the hardwood floor. Lily could feel her friend coming up behind her, his breath on her hair.

"Don't lie to me," Tony Stark murmured as he pulled her back against him and hugged her. "Tell me what's wrong and Tony will make it all better."

Lily scowled and shoved his arms away, taking a step forward and turning to face him. "Leave me alone Tony!" she snapped, slamming the bottle down onto the counter.

His brow creased and his dark eyes filled with worry. "What's wrong Lily?"

Her anger deflated at her best friend's worry and she sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Men are dicks," she said finally, "and I am so done with them."

Tony paused and raised an eyebrow. "I'm gonna need a little bit more context Lils, or I might take offense to that." He gave her an exaggerated angry glare that made her laugh despite herself.

"Just some asshole. He's a sexist bigot." She clenched her fists and looked down at the floor. "He thought I didn't have any place working in the Department of Mysteries, and told me so. He said," and here she paused to clench her teeth, "that the only way a woman like me could get a job like that was being the boss's bitch."

The moment she said those words the beer can went flying across the room and into a wall, where it shattered. At the same time the kettle on the stove began to whistle, wind began to blow around the kitchen, and dishes started to rattle. When Lily realized she took a deep breath and the chaos stopped.

Tony pretended he hadn't noticed, just eyeing her in confusion. "Why was that insulting?" Lily stared at him in bewilderment and he continued. "I mean sure he was an ass, but the fact that he said that meant he felt threatened by you."

"It's not about that!" The redhead crossed her arms and shook her head. "It's the fact that he was treating me like I am some whore!"

"So? He realized that you are so special he couldn't believe it!"

Lily growled as she tugged on her hair at the thick-headedness of her friend. Unbeknownst to her, a slight static charge was tingling through the air. "What the hell Tony? Do you like people thinking that you are fucking Pepper and that's why she got where she did?"

"No, but it's a valid guess as to why!"

Lily stamped her foot down and the entire room vibrated. "You-you bastard!" She shrieked, shoving him with all her might and sending him stumbling backwards. "You dickhead!"

"Yea well at least I'm not a prude!" he shot back with a sneer.

"Better that than a whore!"

"And you'd know!"

Finally pushed over the edge, Lily let out a scream of pure rage. Her magic, controlled by emotions, swelled like a tsunami and lashed out at the source of her anger: Tony. It slammed into him and sent him flying across the room, cracking the drywall. There was no control to it, just her rippling fury and unconscious mind's drive to punish him. The energy wrapped around his body and made his skin feel like it was on fire as it began to twist and change him.

After what seemed like an eternity it vanished and Tony collapsed face-down on the floor with a groan. Lily was still standing, panting heavily since she had just used all that energy. Her head was clearing and she gasped when she saw Tony on the floor and realized what had happened.

"Tony!" she cried out, her anger forgotten as she ran over to him. Frantic fingers found his pulse and she let out a sigh of deep relief. "Tony I'm so sorry," she babbled as she turned him over. "I shouldn't have lose control like that and-" Lily cut off when she saw Tony.

His nose was broken and he had a few scrapes, but what drew her attention was lower. It was the new additions to his body, the suddenly tiny waist and wider hips. "Oh no, what have I done?" Lily whispered as she grabbed him. "Tony? Please be alright!"

She had never been happier to hear him groan "Lily" then she was now.

"What the hell was that?" he muttered as he opened his eyes. Then he shut them tightly. "Oh God my head!"

Lily helped him onto the couch, apologizing the whole time. "I'm so sorry Tony, I shouldn't have lost control of my magic like that."

He shook his head lightly though he winced at the ache. "No, no, it was my fault. I shouldn't have said all those things to you. I kinda deserved a kick in the balls."

Lily cracked a small smile before pausing. "Um… about that."

Tony's eyes opened and he looked at her worriedly. "What is it? Did something happen?" His eyes widened. "Did you crush my boys?" His hand crept down his body.

She couldn't hold back a small snort but schooled her expression. "Magic is unpredictable, Tony, especially when emotions are running high."

His hand finally reached his destination and he shot up into a sitting position. "What the fuck!?" he gasped. "Where'd it go?" He looked down and his eyes grew huge when he realized that his sight was blocked, and more specifically what was blocking it. "Are those…?"

Lily grimaced and nodded. "Tony, I don't know how to say this but… you're a woman."

The genius's shrill girly scream echoed through the apartment complex.

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><p>Tony stepped out of Lily's bedroom, doing the final button on his sweater. He'd had to borrow some of Lily's clothes because, while he had never been a tall man, he was an even shorter woman. "This is surreal. Also, this skirt is very breezy." He shot a grin at Lily as he entered the living room.<p>

Lily didn't notice, hunched over a thick book, obviously near the end of it. She was moving her lips as she read each page, flipping it every few seconds. A quick glance up at Tony had her smirking. "You seem to have really gone all out," observed Lily, leaning back. "Going somewhere special?"

Tony glanced in the mirror and made a face when he(she?) noticed how weird he looked with a female face but short messy hair. "I was gonna go out and explore like this," he answered as he tried to make himself look less like a tomboy. "See the sights, be pretty, and maybe try sex."

It was a good thing that Lily hadn't been drinking anything or she would have spewed it everywhere. "What?" she spluttered, the book falling from her lap onto the floor. "Tony how can you even think of such a thing at a time like this?"

He shrugged as he turned back to her. "Lily, it's been five hours and you haven't found a way to reverse it. Maybe I can just try it out while you look?"

The redhead pursed her lips in disapproval and shook her head. "Even as a woman you are still such a man." But then she sighed and shrugged. "Fine, fine, you go get laid while I try to figure out how to reverse this." She picked the book back up and set it on the couch beside her. "This book is yet another dead-end. There isn't a spell to do this, and the potion is highly illegal."

"Can you make my hair longer?" Obviously Tony hadn't been listening to a word she said.

Lily rolled her eyes but withdrew her wand from her pocket. "Sure Tony. Crinis Maximus," she incanted, pointing her wand at him.

His hair began to grow at an alarming rate, flowing off his head, down past his ears, over his shoulders, and finally stopping almost halfway down his back. Tony shook his head and watched it fly all over. "God that's strange," the billionaire commented as he tugged on it lightly. Then he turned to his friend and offered her a bright smile as he headed for the door. "I'm off then, thanks for the change of clothes."

Lily responded snarkily, "It was the least I could do for stripping you of your manhood."

"Ha ha, you're a regular comedian." Tony opened the door and stepped out.

Lily suddenly remembered something and called out after him. "Don't forget condoms Tony! Being a girl means that you can get pregnant!"

She didn't hear his response before he slammed the door behind him. "I've got a bad feeling about this," she muttered.

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><p>Bruce Banner moved his glass back and forth across the bar, watching the amber liquid swirl in it. He lifted it and downed the rest of the alcohol in one gulp, placing it back on the counter and motioning for the bartender to refill it. He cast a glance around the room surreptitiously. No one who was in there looked suspicious, but then if they were a real threat they'd blend in. He was a scientist, not James Bond.<p>

He turned to watch one couple dance to the music. Well, he wouldn't call it dancing; more grinding. Like sex with clothes on, disguised as dancing.

As Bruce took a sip of his new drink he figured that he really shouldn't be getting drunk like this. He should be moving, trying to keep ahead of those after him, but at the moment all he felt like doing was sleeping and relaxing.

A voice drew his attention and he turned to his right curiously. A woman had slid onto the stool next to him and had ordered a drink, watching him out of the corner of her eye. She was kinda pretty, though she seemed almost androgynous, but was clearly a girl. Though he could be wrong and it could be implants. But hey, what did he have to lose?

"Hi there," Bruce greeted with a smile, feeling a bit better when she returned it.

"Hello." An American accent colored her voice. She twirled one strand of hair lightly around a finger, clearly eyeing him. "What's your name?"

It had been a while since he had been hit on and gone with it, and he'd forgotten what it felt like. "Bruce." He held out a hand to her. "Bruce Banner."

She shook his hand. "Antonia, but call me Toni." Toni leaned on the bar and accepted her drink from the bartender as she turned back to Bruce. "So, come here often?" Very forward for a woman but Bruce kinda liked it.

He shrugged and shook his head. "No, my first time. I've been to England before, but never here."

"Same. I was visiting a friend of mine and decided to take a stroll while she did some work." Toni grinned at him again as she brushed her hair behind her ear, giving him a clear view of her neck, and suddenly his pants felt a bit tighter.

Bruce finished his glass and revelled in the slight buzz he could feel at the back of his head as he spoke again. "Last time was for a science convention. Had to give a speech on anti-electron collisions." Then he wanted to hit himself for sounding like a droning old professor.

Toni suddenly looked a lot more interested, which surprised Bruce. "Really?" she asked, turning to face him completely. "I'm more into engineering myself, but I adore particle physics."

That surprised Bruce quite a lot but it was also really sexy. He offered her a smirk. "Sexy and smart, quite a combo."

Toni hummed to herself as she knocked back a shot and slammed the glass down on the table. "Want to continue this somewhere more private?"

Bruce wasn't used to women being so forward but was all for it. "Sure," he answered, standing when she did. "What did you have in mind?"

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><p>When Tony woke up the next morning in a hotel room Bruce was gone, just leaving a note saying that he had to catch a plane and that their night had been one to remember. Tony agreed fully even if his lower parts ached from losing his female virginity. But it was worth it; Bruce was a muscular hairy stud and certainly a great fuck.<p>

After taking a long shower Tony got redressed in Lily's borrowed clothes, still not used to the whole 'female' thing, and made his way back to Lily's apartment while trying not to look like he was doing the Walk of Shame.

"I'm back!" he called out in a sing-song voice as he stepped inside and kicked off the heels. God, how did women wear those? "How was your night, because mine was wonderful."

When he walked into the kitchen he was greeted with the sight of his best friend stuffing her face full of pancakes with her head buried in another book. Tony sighed and sauntered over to the table, dropping into the chair across from Lily and making her jump. "Morning," he greeted again.

Lily offered him a wry smile. "Hey Tony, how was your night?"

He just shrugged elusively and felt a twinge of satisfaction when her smile turned into an irritated frown. "Good."

"Anything else? Did you take it like a man, or did you dig in your nails and scream?"

Tony rolled his eyes at her as he swiped a strip of bacon from her plate, much to Lily's irritation. When he had eaten it completely he spoke. "It was an incredible experience, though I have to say I prefer being on the giving end. Speaking of which, did you find anything about that?"

"Yes, I found a way to reverse it. A potion, something I've never heard of." Her inner adventurer was obviously excited by the prospect. "It will take me a few days to gather the supplies for it though, you good until then?"

"Sure."

She stood from the table and turned to go, but looked back at him. "Oh, and Tony?"

He looked up from stealing her unfinished breakfast.

"Don't sleep with anyone else. If you get pregnant then this potion won't work."

Tony gulped, appetite suddenly gone, at the thought of getting pregnant. "Roger that." As he watched her saunter off he thought back to the night before and a chill shot up his spine. In the haze of lust, alcohol, sweat, and heat, he couldn't remember if the guy… whatever his name was, had remembered a rubber. "Well shit," he muttered to himself as he banged his head on the table. "Crap I hope I'm wrong."

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><p>Five days later it turned out that he was not wrong. For the first time in a long time he wished that he had been wrong, but the look on Lily's face told him how right he was. He had drunk that filthy potion three times and it hadn't done anything but given him a stomachache.<p>

Twenty days later he woke up by running to the toilet and emptying his stomach into it. Every morning Lily would rub his back and give him a bottle of water to help clean the nasty taste out of his mouth.

Sixty days in his emotions were all over. He started bawling when Obadiah reprimanded him for taking such a sudden break from the company, and when a guy on the street wolf-whistled at him Lily had to hold him back from ripping the man a new one.

At five months he developed the most bizarre cravings. No matter how many times Lily told him it was perfectly normal, in his book craving sushi with mustard, pork rinds with ice cream, and oodles of noodles was not natural.

Except, no matter how much trouble it caused, he was coming to love his unborn baby. He talked to it, stroked his growing stomach, told it stupid stories, and put up with lots of Beethoven for it.

At eight months he looked like he was smuggling a watermelon. The doctor Lily had convinced him to visit told him that he was a bit larger than they'd expected and the baby was probably going to be quite a big one. He'd tried to put off knowing the gender until the birth, but his curiosity overcame him.

It was going to be a boy.

When he was nearing the final stretch he developed an obsession with cleaning. His ankles and back may have been sore and getting up may have been a pain in the ass-literally-but he wanted everything to be perfect for when his son came into the world.

His son, and wasn't that a terrifying thought. Tony wasn't cut out to be a parent, that much he knew. He was reckless, irresponsible, and nowhere near mature enough to take care of a baby.

Tony started calling the baby Bentley. It was the name of one of his favorite car when he was a kid, and it was a stupid choice, but he thought it sounded kinda cute. Bentley Stark.

A week before the expected due date his water broke. Lily had helped the panicking shemale to the hospital, where his doctor was waiting. It took twelve hours of screaming, pushing, and general pain before the boy was out and screaming his little head off. Well, not so little; Bentley had been pretty big at 8.5 pounds, and Tony figured that he got it from his biological father.

His son was adorable. A light dusting of black hair coated the top of his head and his big staring eyes were a shade of nearly neon green that worried Tony. However, the doctor said that it was nothing to be worried about, as bizarre as it was for the boy to not be born with generic blue eyes.

Then came the hardest part of all. Tony knew that him being absent for a year had stirred up the press, and he knew that coming back with an illegitimate son in tow would cause an explosion of media. Everyone would want pictures of the littlest Stark, they would want to know who the mother was, and they would overwhelm Tony. Worst of all, it would put his son in danger. People would kidnap him for ransoms, they would kidnap him for blackmail, they might even kill him to get back at Tony, and that was something Tony would NOT allow.

So he had turned to Lily, his best friend, who had been there for him since day one. She was to marry her long-time boyfriend James in a month. James was a nice man, Tony rather liked him. But the biggest thing was that James couldn't have children because of a spell he had been cursed by during a fight.

Tony entrusted his officially unnamed son to Lily and James to raise. They named him Harry James Potter. Personally Tony didn't love the boring name but never said a word. He would visit once a month, as often as he could. Harry never knew him as a parent, just a sort of fun uncle who brought toys. Surprisingly enough Harry turned out to have magic, which as far as they could guess came from the manner of his conception.

It was as good of an arrangement as Tony could have hoped for, until Lily and James were killed and Harry was carted off to Lily's bitch of a sister, Petunia, and her obese husband and son. Tony knew that they would not take well to Harry and his magical gifts, and so he intervened.

He paid off the Dursleys so that they would keep Harry happy. They would not let him visit, but he could still be a guardian angel to his son. He sent birthday gifts, christmas gifts, and letters every month. He kept an eye on his son's grades and was happy to see that the boy was clever as could be.

Everything seemed to work like clockwork. Until two months after Harry's eleventh birthday, when a white owl appeared at Tony's window.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN-Okay, sorry for the wait on this chapter, I was a bit stuck. **

**This chapter is all of book one/Iron Man 1. There is a MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH! I repeat there is a MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH! Please don't flame me for it, because I am warning for it here. This chapter jumps over the place a bit, as I didn't want to rehash every scene of the book/movie, but I did hit the big parts and the parts that are important to my story. **

**Disclaimer-I won nothing. **

**Chapter Two**

"Doctor?" Bruce turned at the voice, trying to force a smile on his face as much as he was able, and nodded at the little girl standing behind him. She was disheveled, dirt marks on her face and no shoes on her feet, but he was glad that he might be able to make her smile.

"Your dad is going to be just fine, Sari." The translator repeated the words in Tamil and the little girl lit up like the sun, darting forward to hug Bruce around the waist quickly before she backed away and moved around him to grab her fathers hand.

India was about as far from the United States as he thought he could get and still function, the majority of the country knowing enough words in English that he was able to help many, but Bruce still felt the urge to move.

The Hulk was just under the surface, and the further he got from what he knew, the more the green monster tried to break free. He wanted to be 'somewhere', and Bruce didn't know where. He climbed into the dirty jeep that he had been able to salvage from a local dump, and pulled away. The villagers were surrounding the patient, moving him towards the small house he and his family lived in, and there was nothing else for Bruce to do there.

Rubbing his chest as he bumped down the dirt packed road, Bruce considered that it might be time for him to move on. Maybe if he went back West, maybe to the Middle East or Africa, the Hulk would calm down.

Hopefully.

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><p>"Tony?" Pepper stood in the doorway to Tony's underground lab, watching the back of the genius' head. Tony was staring down at the desk in front of him, the fingers of his left hand tapping on the table in agitation. He had been down here for three days, and she was getting worried.<p>

Even JARVIS hadn't been able to get through to him.

"Tony?" She said again, the glass door closing behind her as her feet carried her across the floor. He didn't flinch, didn't acknowledge her entrance. "Tony?" She touched his shoulder, grimacing at the grease that covered the back of his neck and he startled, looking up at her with brown eyes.

"Pepper? I didn't hear you." He covered up the paper in front of him with a hand. Pepper only had a glimpse of spidery, childlike handwriting before it was blocked from her view, and she frowned.

"I called you from the door, Tony. You've been down here three days." Pepper said, "Working on anything interesting?"

There was nothing going on, nothing vital that required his attention for the first time in what seemed like years, and if he was down here just for the hell of it she would understand.

She just needed to know.

She needed to know if this was going to turn into one of those 'Tony tantrums' that lead to drunken one night escapades that were Public Relations nightmares.

"Not really, Pep." Tony turned to face her, a smile on his face that looked wane and false. "Just...playing around really. How was New York?" Tony stood and stretched, ushering her towards the door as subtly as Tony Stark was able, which wasn't very, and she wrinkled her nose as she caught a whiff of him.

"New York was fine, though the board was upset you chose not to attend, again." Pepper looked at him, "You need a shower, Tony. Now. You need a shower, and food, and sleep, and then," he opened his mouth to contradict her and she frowned until he closed it again, "Then I'll tell you about New York. Deal?"

He stared her down for a moment, before his own odor seemed to reach his nose and he frowned. "Okay, maybe you're right, but don't get used to this, Ms. Potts."

He headed towards the door and she followed him long enough to see him go up the stairs towards his bedroom, before turning back to the desk.

Whatever had sent him into this funk was there, and she would find out what.

Starting with the letter.

* * *

><p>"I wonder what they're going to do for Halloween this year," Terry Boot was talking animatedly about the upcoming Halloween Feast in a few days, and Harry snickered.<p>

"Probably bats and pumpkins." Harry had never gotten the whole Halloween experience, even Dudley didn't get to go out trick or treating, no matter how much he yelled and screamed at his parents. Harry was looking forward to seeing what Halloween would be like in the magical world. Whatever it was, it was bound to be wicked.

"Bats?" Terry asked, turning to walk backwards into the Great Hall. "Why would there be bats on Halloween?" The brunette dropped into an open spot at the Ravenclaw table, tossing his books willy nilly and getting dirty looks from the upper years as Harry, Anthony, and Michael crowded onto the bench next to him.

"I dunno," Harry shrugged and reached towards the platter of eggs at his elbow, "Muggles always have bats and pumpkins at Halloween things, I think."

As the Great Hall filled up around them, Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw filling in first, with Slytherin soon after and Gryffindors making up the stragglers as always, his roommates gave him pitying looks. None of them were muggleborn, though Terry had a muggle mom, and he found himself explaining the strangest things.

He would never try explaining how electricity worked again, that was for sure. Even for Ravenclaws, they just weren't getting it.

"Don't look now Harry, Granger's glaring at you again." Harry groaned as the Ravenclaws around him snickered, refusing to look at the Gryffindor that had been a pain in his ass since the moment he stepped on the train.

"I don't get what her problem is. You're not even in the same house, why does she care?" Terry was stuffing his face with a waffle, spraying crumbs over the rest of the table as he spoke. Harry made a face.

"I have no idea."

The sound of birds filled the room, hundreds of different owls swooping over tables and delivering packages and letters to students and teachers alike. Harry glanced up, frowning as he saw Hedwig's bright white wings heading towards him, and caught the letter that she dropped in his hands before heading towards the Owlery. He didn't blame her, Scotland to America probably wasn't an easy flight. Harry glanced at the writing on the front of the letter and his heart began racing.

"Harry? Harry are you okay?" Terry's voice brought Harry back and the Boy-Who-Lived nodded, stuffing the letter in his bag and hiding it from view.

"Yeah, I'm fine." His leg was shaking, the urge to run away and read the letter greater than his urge to go to class, but he held it back. He didn't want anymore dirty looks from the rest of Hogwarts than he was already getting.

Apparently, the Boy-Who-Lived and son of James and Lily Potter being anything other than a Gryffindor was just unbelievable.

* * *

><p>"What do you think you were doing, Harry?" Harry groaned to himself and stuffed the letter back into his bag as Hermione Granger appeared behind him in the library.<p>

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Granger." Hermione threw herself into the seat next to him, the chair rocking onto two legs with the force before settling. The bushy haired girl blushed as Madame Pince gave her a dirty look, but didn't look away from Harry.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! I was only trying to help them, you know." She crossed her arms over her chest and glared. "Stepping in like that was rude."

Harry sighed and reached for his book, determined to get his potions essay done early so Professor Snape wouldn't have more reason to take points than he already did. "Granger, I really don't want to talk about this right now. I have an essay to finish."

She refused to let it go.

"You shouldn't have done it. I was correct, and I was perfectly capable of showing them what they were doing wrong." Harry put the book back down and counted backwards from ten. He could feel his temper beginning to build, and the headache that he always got when he was angry hitting him hard in the temples. It didn't do anything to improve his mood. "Well? Are you even going to apologize?"

Harry counted backwards from 100 and stared at the wood of the table, tracing figures with his finger tips.

'_I have control of my anger, I will not let it control me.' _He repeated the mantra to himself, over and over again, until his heart rate began to calm and he could look up at the bushy haired Gryffindor without screaming at her until she ran away.

"Granger. We are First Years." Harry said, trying to make her understand. "We can read all the theory we want, but we don't have the experience to correct someone. That's why Professor Flitwick is in charge."

She frowned at him and huffed.

"I know how to do the spell, I did it before them perfectly." She was so sure of herself, and Harry rolled his eyes. "You just didn't want us to get house points for it."

"Granger, you're just lucky I stopped you before one of them tried it. Do you know what can go wrong with that spell? Did you even listen to the lecture or did you think that just because you read it in a book you didn't have to pay attention?" He stood, trying to tower over her, and cursed his short size when she stood and loomed over him instead.

"Of course I know what the consequences," She sneered the word, "are. But I know how to do the spell, and I wouldn't show them wrong. You should have just left us alone."

"Granger," Harry's anger snapped, "Would you have been able to save them if they mispronounced and ignited their wands? Would you have been able to save the poor guy who got choked to death if one of your cronies stressed the second syllable instead of the first? I don't think you would have been, but the Professor would."

Hermione's face flushed in anger before paling as Harry pressed himself close enough to her face that his breath brushed over her cheek.

"Now, go away and let me study." Hermione left without another word, her shoulders shaking as she ran and Harry immediately felt bad, but didn't go after her.

He did the right thing, after all.

* * *

><p>"Harry? Can I talk to you, mate?" Harry took a deep breath and turned to the red head, smiling and trying not to scream inside. He had only just escaped one Gryffindor, and now he was dealing with another one. It just wasn't fair.<p>

"Sure, Ron." The two first years walked out of the castle and into the sun, heading for the quidditch pitch. The Hufflepuff team was practicing, and both boys were looking forward to watching. If they couldn't play on a team, at least they could watch. "What's up?"

"I heard Granger came after you for Charms." The redhead stuffed his hands in his pockets and curled his shoulders over against the wind. "Sorry about that, the girl is absolutely mental."

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "It's not like you did anything. She could have gotten everyone in the room killed. Have you heard anything about the Gryffindor seeker? Is he any good?"

Ron opened his mouth to reply, face lighting up at his favorite subject. "We..." It was as far as he got before someone was running in between them, brown hair flying behind her as she huddled close to her books.

"I..reckon she heard you." Harry felt a momentary flash of pity for the other first year. He all-too-well what it felt like to be smarter than everyone around you and have no way of proving it, but shrugged it off quickly. At least in a Muggle school, you didn't risk blowing your classmates up if you didn't know what you were talking about. "Anyway, the Gryffindor seeker is looking really good. Better than Cho Chang anyway."

Harry laughed, shoving the other boy at the slight to the Ravenclaw's second year seeker and put all thoughts of Hermione Granger out of his mind. He would apologize tonight at the feast.

* * *

><p>The Great Hall was somber, several Gryffindors sobbing into their porridge while the rest of the students tried to look away and hide their own tears.<p>

Hermione Granger was dead. The words echoed around Harry's head, over and over again until it was one long word. He clenched his fist around the letter in his hand, knowing that he was creasing it, but not finding it in himself to care.

Hermione Granger was dead, and it was his fault. Harry could feel the eyes on him, the whispers coming from the other tables. His housemates pulled around him, shielding him from as much of it as they could, but he knew that even some of them blamed him.

He was the Boy Who Lived, as Draco Malfoy had gleefully pointed out. If he was such a huge Savior, why hadn't he been able to save her? Why hadn't he gone after the Troll? Why hadn't he done what he was supposed to do?

"It's not your fault, Harry." Terry said, pushing the plate of toast closer to him and glaring daggers at someone over Harry's shoulder, "You need to eat."

Harry took a bit of toast, but couldn't make himself eat it. If he put something in his mouth, he knew that it would just end up coming back up.

"Yeah Harry, you know Malfoy was just running his mouth as usual. He didn't even like Gran...Hermione. Don't let him get to you." Anthony chimed in from Harry's left, Michael on Harry's right nodding in agreement.

"But maybe I..." Harry's mouth clacked shut audibly as he was nailed with a glare from all three of his roommates.

"Mate, if the next words out of your mouth aren't 'I had nothing to do with Hermione Granger's death', we don't want to hear it, okay?"

"But..."

"Okay?" Terry said again and brandished a fork at Harry until he nodded sheepishly.

"Okay," Harry said, mentally writing a letter to Tony in his head. He still wasn't exactly clear on how Tony knew him, or his parents, though the man had always been a presence in his life as far back as Harry could remember, but the man was the only supporting adult Harry had ever known.

Surely he would be able to help Harry through this too.

* * *

><p>Tony stared at the letter in front of him.<p>

He had no idea what he was doing, or what he was supposed to say.

They were talking more comfortably, Tony enjoyed being the all knowing Uncle that Harry could turn to, even if he didn't know what Tony really was to him, but this...this was so far beyond his scope he didn't even know where to start.

But he couldn't just ignore it, could he?

"JARVIS?" Tony asked aloud, spinning around in his chair to look out at the lab around him. DUM-E and Butterfingers were asleep in their charging stations, and the holograms were muted for once. "Do a search on parenting websites for anything remotely similar to this."

JARVIS didn't say anything for once, just projected the search results on the nearest screen and Tony began scrolling through them. "Talking to your Child about Death", "The Child's Loss: Death, grief, and mourning", Tony read through the them all.

"JARVIS, all of this seems to be for kids younger than Harry." Tony raked a hand through his hair, "Is there anything for older kids?"

More results scrolled in front of his eyes, and Tony nodded. He read through a few of them quickly, and turned back towards the paper waiting for him to impart words of wisdom and healing.

He still didn't feel like he was the right person to talk about this, but he had to give it a shot.

The words came quickly, Tony trying not to overthink them, and he slid the letter away from him with a smile when it was finished. Hedwig swooped down from her perch on the ceiling (Tony may or may not have made her a specialized perch with all the amenities an owl could want) and picked it up in her claws. The white owl circled him a few times, hooting loudly, before flying out the entrance and winging into the sky.

"Well, that could have gone worse." Snapping his fingers, the lights came up to full power and the pictures Christine Everheart had shoved accusingly in his hands at the reception earlier spreading in front of his eyes.

Galmira.

He owed it to Yinsin to make sure those bastards couldn't hurt anyone else.

"Jarv, ready the suit."

They wouldn't know what hit them

* * *

><p>Harry stared in the mirror, frowning as looked over his shoulder and saw nothing, but the image didn't change when he looked back at it.<p>

It made him smile, no matter that what he was looking at wasn't there. Terry hadn't seen them either, instead babbling about some award he had always wanted to win.

Maybe it was only for Harry?

The figures surrounding him in the mirror smiled, the man with brown hair and a glowing circle in his chest squeezing Harry's shoulder and playfully shoving the man Harry knew was his father. James Potter laughed and shoved back while Lily Potter nee Evans, smirked in the background, shaking her head at the antics of the men in her family.

It was a dream, a dream that Harry knew would never come true, but he couldn't help but come back here night after night anyway.

He had to see them, if only for a moment.

Terry said he was crazy, and the other boy wasn't talking to him until he put 'that Gryffindor stupidity' behind, but Harry didn't care.

"You've come here at lot, Harry." Harry jumped and turned around, his heart pounding in his chest. Headmaster Dumbledore sat on one of the abandoned desks in the corner, watching Harry over the top of his halfmoon glasses.

"Professor! I didn't see you there," Harry's heart was still pounding, but he unclenched his fists. It was just the professor, he had more right to be here than Harry himself did. "Do you have a cloak too?"

"I had no need of a cloak to make myself invisible, Harry." The Headmaster said, standing and making his way across the empty room. He stood behind Harry and looked into the mirror. "What do you see when you look?"

Harry hesitated, but shrugged. It wasn't like what he saw was all that different. "I see my family."

Dumbledore smiled and stuck a hand on Harry's shoulder, squeezing lightly, and Harry had to bite back a hand as the Tony-and-James in the mirror stuck out tongues at the aging Headmaster.

"Do you know what the Mirror of Erised does, Harry?" Harry shrugged. He had figured out the name of the mirror the first night Terry and he stumbled onto it, but he didn't know what it did, not exactly.

"It shows us, nothing more and nothing less, than the deepest and most desperate desire of our hearts. You have never known your family, and so you see them standing around you. Your friend Terry has always been told that rising to his ancestors greatness is the most important thing, and so he sees himself surpassing them, making his own mark on the world." The Headmaster sighed, "But it doesn't show us the truth. Great men have wasted their lives away, standing before it, or gone mad when they were unable to reach their dreams." He stepped back, and fixed Harry with a serious stare. "The mirror is being moved tomorrow Harry. I must ask that you not go looking for it again. If you do run across it, you will be prepared, but it does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live. Remember that, young potter."

Harry nodded, and the Headmaster stepped aside, the door Harry had closed so carefully behind him swinging open without being touched. "After you Harry. I will escort you back to your dormitory."

Harry looked back once as they left the room, smiling sadly as the figures in the mirror waved once at him before fading away.

"TERRY!" Harry screamed from his spot on the board, but didn't move as Terry took the hit from the Queen and crumpled to the ground. Michael tried to take a step forward, but Harry screamed at him to stop. They couldn't risk his sacrifice being in vain, they had to keep going.

If they didn't, Quirell would win. They couldn't let him get the Stone. Harry took short steps across the board until he stood in front of the King. "Checkmate" his voice trembled as he spoke, and he jumped slightly as the King's sword fell from his hand and landed on the board with a clang. As soon as it hit, and the other pieces had fallen completely still, Harry and Michael were across the board and at Terry's side. The other Ravenclaw was bleeding slightly at the temple, but he stirred and blinked up at them weakly.

"Why are you idiots still here?" He said, coughing as he moved, "I didn't just get my head bashed in so you guys could stand here and mope over me. Get after Quirell, I'm fine." He waved a hand and maneuvered himself into a sitting position, "I'm just going to sit here and relearn how to breathe. Go!" Harry nodded and backed towards the door, while Michael kept looking towards Terry as he moved.

They stepped through the door, and both boys jumped as flames roared up behind them, blocking the way back, and black flames roared across the exit, blocking the way forward. A long table, with seven unmarked and differently shaped bottles and a piece of parchment, were the only things in the dark room, and Michael stepped towards it.

"I guess we found Snape's contribution," The Ravenclaw said wryly, reading over the parchment before passing it to Harry and studying the bottles in front of them. Harry glanced at them as well and back at Michael.

"So, one of these takes us forward, and one of them takes us back." Michael nodded, already pointing at different bottles and muttering under his breath, "That's brilliant! Lots of wizards and witches could figure out the rest, but a lot of them don't have a lick of logic!"

"Most of them would have said Professor Snape was the bad guy too." Michael said, shaking his head and making a face, "Hand me that paper, I think I know which ones are the right ones, but I want to look at the clues again." Harry passed it over without a word and Michael's eyes flicked down it quickly before he pointed at the rounded bottle and the smallest bottle. "The small one takes us forward, and the other one takes us back."

Harry nodded and picked up the smallest bottle, looking at it. "There's only enough for one of us." Michael shrugged and grabbed the backwards potion, taking a swig and backing towards the exit back to the chess room.

"Better get going then, Terry and I will go get more help, if he's done picking his brains up off the floor." Michael gave a vicious smile, "I don't know why Quirell wants the stone, but you better make him pay for it Harry."

He was gone a moment later, and Harry squared his shoulders. "Here goes nothing," he muttered, and swallowed the remaining forward potion with one gulp.

* * *

><p>Tony couldn't stop thinking about the letter the entire time he stood in front of the press. Words came out of his mouth, words that he knew made some kind of sense, but he couldn't focus on them.<p>

Harry had almost died.

Harry, his Harry, his son, had almost died.

And Tony hadn't been there to stop it.

"Excuse me, you don't think we'll actually believe that, do you? That a bodyguard just happened to be..." Tony laughed, clueing back in to what was going on around him as Christine Everhart spoke.

It was always Christine that saw through his bullshit. It was refreshing.

"Are you insinuating that I'm a superhero?" He laughed as he asked the question, and she frowned at him.

"I never said anything about you being a superhero."

Tony laughed and fiddled with his collar before looking out over the room. It was filled with reporters, cameras and tape recorders trained towards the screen, "Good, because that would be ridiculous and, um, outlandish and.." Tony coughed. "Okay, you want the truth,"

They leaned in more, and Tony saw Pepper put her head in her hands. She knew him better than he knew himself, apparently.

"The truth is..." He looked over the crowd more, a flash of green catching his eye, and Tony made up his mind in that split second. He had to end this, so he could go get Harry. He couldn't stand on the sidelines anymore to his own son's life. The first time was a mistake, and he was going to change that.

"The truth is...I am Iron Man." The crowd went wild, standing up and shouting questions at him, Christine staring at him with a frown as she watched him walk away from the podium.

He didn't care. He would deal with the fallout from this when he got Harry. Nothing else mattered. The SHIELD Press Agent was on the stage, trying to regain quiet and do some kind of damage control, and Agent Coulson was glaring at him as Tony came off the stage and passed him.

"Was that absolutely necessary, Stark?"

Tony nodded, sliding his sunglasses over his eyes as he neared the door. "Yes, it was Agent. Pepper!" Pepper stepped up next to him, none of what she was feeling showing on her face.

"Yes Mr. Stark?"

"Get the jet ready, we're going to England. Surrey, to be precise."

Pepper blinked, pulling her phone out and typing a few text messages without looking as she stared at him.

"England? Why?" Tony smiled, and climbed into the limo that stopped at the curb.

"I'm going to get my son."


	3. Chapter 3

**AN-This chapter has been an absolute nightmare to write. I know there's not much action, but I promise this was necessary. **

**Tons of thanks go out to njchrispatrick, who helped push me into finishing this, listening to my whining, and even contributing a few paragraphs to help me figure out where this was going. If you haven't read his stuff, check it out**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Three<strong>

Harry stared out the window of Number Four Privet Drive, shuffling the letters in his hands over and over again. Some were cards, birthday and Christmas, while others were sheet after sheet of paper.

Harry had read them all, over and over again, until the pages were creased and the words were embedded in his memory.

Tony was the only person, outside of Hogwarts, that had ever seemed to care about him. Tony had given him advice, and had listened to him without trying to tell him how to feel

And now it had been over two weeks since he'd heard from the man.

"Up!" Aunt Petunia rapped on the door to his bedroom, startling him, and Harry grumbled. It must be breakfast time.

As Harry trudged down the stairs towards the kitchen, Dudley sneering at him as the larger boy came out of his bedroom. He hadn't tried anything since Harry got his letter, but the threat was always there.

"Morning, Uncle Vernon." Harry tried to be polite as he greeted the whale sitting at the table, newspaper in his porky hands, but Vernon didn't do anything more than grunt.

Grunting was better than yelling, and Harry knew that things could be a lot worse for him.

"Get breakfast started, Harry. Vernon has to work early today." Petunia took her seat at the table, giving him a sharp eyed glare as Harry trudged towards the stove. Breakfast, at least the ingredients, were already laid out, and Harry moved by rote.

"Vernon." Petunia was talking, but Harry tried to tune her out as he put all of his attention on the eggs. "Vernon, look at the front page."

Harry stirred the eggs.

"Petunia, it couldn't be. It's some other boy."

"But Vernon," Petunia's voice was a hiss, "What if it is! Don't you think its a little coincidental?"

"Nonsense, Pet..."

The eggs were smoothly plated, three large plates and one half portion (Harry never wanted to turn out to be like Dudley, thank you very much), bacon placed neatly next to them as the adults continued to bicker behind him.

"It would make sense! I mean, why else would he have..."

Harry slid the plates in front of the two adults, the third (and largest) plate going in front of the seat that Dudley very quickly took when his pig like nose scented food in his near vicinity.

"Thank you, Harry." The words were stilted, and Harry raised an eyebrow. In the seven years, give or take a few, that he had been cooking for the Dursleys, none of them had ever said thank you. Ever.

"Er, you're welcome?" Harry offered, turning away from the awkward exchange to grab his own plate. He would love to escape to his room, eat away from them, but Aunt Petunia would lose her mind at the thought of crumbs getting anywhere but in the kitchen. Even her precious Didley Duddikins couldn't get away with it.

"Petunia?" Vernon's fork froze halfway to his mouth, bits of egg falling onto the table under him as he stared at his wife.

"Just in case Vernon. I won't have him angry at us."

Dudley looked between his parents like he was at a particularly confusing tennis match, but Harry kept his focus on his plate. The sooner he finished it off, the sooner he could clean up and escape to his room again. He had stashed a physics book from the library under his bed before he left for Hogwarts, and he was looking forward to reading it.

It wasn't like he would pay the fine anyway.

Just as Harry scraped the last bit of egg and burnt bacon off his plate, rushing to the sink to throw it in, the doorbell rang.

Vernon and Petunia looked at each other, but neither made a move to get out of their chairs. Dudley would never be bothered to move from his seat when food was involved, and Harry wasn't allowed to talk to 'normal' people.

The doorbell rang again.

"I'll get it," Harry moved towards the door, but Petunia was on her feet before he could step out of the kitchen.

"No. Stay there, Harry."

She was gone in a swirl of skirts.

* * *

><p>Tony rang the doorbell of Number Four Privet drive for a second time, exchanging an aggravated look with Happy.<p>

Not only was he here, a continent away from Malibu at the ungodly time of 7:30 am on a Tuesday (He hadn't even known they made a 7:30 am, was that a recent thing?) , he was having to wait on the doorstep of the most cookie cutter, identical, neighborhood's that he had ever had the displeasure to step foot in.

Harry had grown up here?

'Happy, is this thing broken?" Tony asked rhetorically, pushing his finger on the doorbell and pressing until he could hear the chimes sound repeatedly inside. He had sent letters, they knew he was coming, hell it had been in all the papers for at least a week.

There was no way they weren't expecting him.

"Probably not boss, it is early." Happy stood beside him, staged so he could see everything going on, and Tony knew that bulge in his jacket wasn't from a blind tailor. Happy was armed, and would go down firing before he let someone get to Tony again.

Tony grunted, leaning on the doorbell harder. If they weren't awake, they would be awake now.

The door was yanked open suddenly, and Tony looked over the top of his sunglasses the stick thin woman standing in front of him. Dressed like a fifties housewife, completely with tarnished pearls, , Petunia Dursley was everything he thought she would be, and that wasn't much.

"Can I help you?"

Tony had to give her credit, her voice didn't shake when she spoke to him. He knew CEOs who couldn't say the same.

"Absolutely Petunia," Tony smiled and walked into the house, not waiting for her invitation. He had been kept waiting long enough, "I thought that I was clear when I would be here, but apparently not."

"Who is it, Petunia?" The floor vibrated slightly under him, and Tony touched the wall to keep himself from falling over as Vernon Dursley came around the corner into the hallway, completely filling the doorway. "Oh...Mr. Stark!" A smile crossed the obese man's face and he stuck out a flabby hand. "What an honor!"

Tony wrinkled up his nose as he eyed the appendage before returning his gaze to Vernon, merely raising an eyebrow. The other man held his hand out for a few moments longer before registering the billionaire's obvious lack of care and withdrew it.

The man, Vernon, screwed up his face slightly and it grew a bit more red as his moustache twitched. "Erm," he blustered, tugging at his shirt, "is there anything we can do for you?"

Tony felt his irritation bump up another notch as they tried to pretend that they had no idea why he was there. As if he hadn't been sending them money for a decade.

"Let's cut to the chase, Dursley. We both know why I'm here."

Vernon blinked, shifting in the doorway. He looked confused, and Tony began to think that something wasn't right here.

"I'm afraid we don't, Mr. Stark. If you're here to talk about drills, I prefer to do that at the office."

Drills. Dursley thought he was there to talk about drills? As if he needed to outsource drills to a small company no one really heard about.

"Why would I come all the way to London, for drills?" Tony asked. Happy shifted away from the door, coming to stand at his shoulder.

"Boss, maybe your letters didn't get here?"

Tony blinked again. The thought hadn't even occurred to him.

"What letters?" Petunia asked, finding her bravery again. She slid past Happy, and stood next to her overweight husband, the comparison between them reminding Tony of a Laurel and Hardy sketch.

"Seriously? You didn't get any of my letters? Dammit, Pepper, I knew I should have used email. This is what you get for trusting people instead of technology." Tony ranted to himself, yanking his sunglasses off and shoving them in the top pocket of his suit jacket. "Did Harry get any of mine? Maybe Hedwig was more reliable than whatever gets mail from us to you."

"Did I get what?"

Tony's breath caught in his throat, words failing him for the first time in his life, as Harry shoved his way past his uncle to stand in front of Tony.

"Did I get what?" Harry asked again when Tony didn't answer, too busy taking in the changes that had taken over his son since he was a toddler. He had no pictures of Harry, too afraid that people who would use Harry to get to Tony would find them and make the connection, and he hated that he had missed so much of the boy's life. "Hello?"

"Boss," Happy nudged him slightly, and Tony startled. Harry was glaring at him, green eyes almost burning, and Tony swallowed heavily.

"Hi Harry, I'm Tony."

* * *

><p>"No, I am not at liberty to give more information at this time." Pepper almost growled the words into the phone. It was the fourteenth call from the press she'd had about the new "Stark and Son" duo, and she was already sick of them. "Yes a press conference will be held sometime in the near future, we just ask that you be patient while Mr. Stark and his son settle in."<p>

"No, that's all the information I am going to give, Ms. Everheart. I'm sure Tony will let you know when he's ready."

Pepper hung up the phone without waiting for a reply, groaning and turning the phone off completely when it immediately started ringing again. She loved Tony, she really did. This was the best job she'd ever had, it was never boring. While sometimes she got tired of wrangling "Tony the Man Child", she had to say it was the most rewarding thing she'd ever done, but occasionally she wished her boss would just think before he opened his mouth and said the first thing that came to his mind.

This could have been handled so much better, a press conference specifically for introducing the idea of Tony having a son, or at least a press release. If Tony would have just thought for once!

"Ms. Potts?" A redhead woman poked her head around the door, a smile on her face and Pepper found herself smiling back. Promoting Natalie Rushman had been a stroke of luck; the woman was amazing with other employees and vicious with the press, Pepper was lucky to have her in her corner.

Even though Legal was bemoaning her loss very heavily, and to anyone who would listen.

"Yes, Natalie?"

"Lt. Colonel Rhodes is downstairs, he wants to speak with you, if you're available."

Pepper smiled, slipping her feet back into her heels and standing up.

"Lay on, MacDuff. I always have time for Rhodey."

If only for a drinking partner when dealing with Tony got too much for both of them.

* * *

><p>"Happy, why don't you take Harry to his room to pack his stuff." Tony didn't yell the words, but Harry knew they weren't a request. Tony, his Tony, the Tony from all the letters, was standing in the middle of the Dursley's living room...and the Dursleys cowered from him like he was a god.<p>

It was sort of cool, even though Harry had the feeling that there was something major that he was missing.

"Come on kid, you're upstairs right?" Happy, the stocky man that hadn't left Tony's side since they stepped into the house, smiled and nodded towards the stairs. "Let's go get your stuff, I don't think the boss is going to want to stay here very long if he has the chance. He's a bit of a diva like that." Happy winked at him, and Harry bit back the snicker that wanted to escape.

Tony watched the two go out of the corner of his eye, waiting until they disappeared into the upstairs hallway, before he turned on the Dursleys, quick as lightning.

"Okay, Dursley, what do you want?"

Vernon smiled slowly, beady eyes studying Tony like he thought he would be able to outfox the other businessman.

"Well, we have been taking care of your son for over ten years now, with minimal pay from you.."

Tony frowned, cutting the large man off.

"Dursley, I have paid you, every month, without fail, since the moment you took Harry in. And I don't see any indications that you have put that money towards my son, except what I forced you to do. You didn't send him to a good school like I asked, you clearly don't supply him with the clothes he needs, you did minimal care, if that."

Vernon crossed his arms over his chest, glaring now.

"You paid us pennies, Mr. Stark. If we knew exactly who you were, the amount you offered would not have been enough. We have gone through hell with that boy, and we deserve some payment for that!"

Tony stepped in front of Dursley, wishing he was in the armor so he could give Dursley a repulsor blast that he wouldn't forget. "Watch yourself Dursley," he hissed. "I was planning on just leaving with my son, no muss no fuss, but if you want to fight me you'll regret it."

Dursley swelled like a puffer fish, and pointed a finger in Tony's chest, right over the reactor. Tony tried not to flinch back, and glared harder.

"Now see here, Stark!" Vernon growled, "We have put up with your freak of a son for ten years. We have fed him, clothed him, sent him to school, let you send him presents and letters all these years without expecting anything for our own Dudley who felt horribly left out, and put up with having someone that is not our blood in the house. What you sent us didn't even touch what he put us through."

Tony raised an eyebrow, waiting for it. This was always when the threats happened. They were sometimes good threats, and Tony was interested to see what Dursley would come up with. It wouldn't change anything, but it might be good for a laugh.

"Oh? And what exactly do you propose to do about it?" Tony smirked, "What amount of money do you think is 'acceptable'" The quotes were clear, and Vernon glared harder.

"Well considering our hardship," Vernon said, and Tony knew he was about to deliver what he thought would be the killing blow, "and to keep all of this out of the press, wouldn't want your investors to know that you weren't supporting your own child, I think 2 million, Pounds not Dollars, would be a fair price."

"My son is worth more money than I've ever owned." Tony snarled, going nose to nose with the other man, "But if you think I'm going to pay you for providing the absolute minimum care that a human being could be accepted to receive, you are stupider than I thought." Tony grinned, "If you even try to go to the press with your lies, I will make sure you and your wife spend the rest of your days in jail for neglect of a minor, if I can't manage to make outright abuse stick."

Tony stepped back, pulling his sunglasses out of his pocket and sliding them back on his nose.

"The question is, Dursley, do you think your lawyers are better than the worst of mine?"

Dirty Harry had nothing on Tony Stark

* * *

><p>Harry slowly packed his trunk under the watchful eye of Happy Hogan, straining his ears to hear what was going on downstairs.<p>

"So, do you like living here?" Happy asked carefully, picking through the clothes (if they could be called that) in Harry's small wardrobe, passing the least offensive articles back to Harry.

"It's okay. My school's nice, and I'm not here all that much anymore, so it's not horrible." Harry answered just as carefully, folding the shirts and sticking them deep in the bottom of the trunk, under his school uniforms and over his books. He knew Tony knew about the wizarding world, but he wasn't sure about Happy and he wasn't going to get in trouble with whatever passed for government in the Wizarding World for letting a muggle find out about everything.

"Do you like school? You got to a boarding school, don't you?" Happy closed the wardrobe, everything else inside a lost cause, and leaning against it. The room was bare, no pictures of Harry with friends or school stuff on the walls, a bare bed with a threadbare blanket and a flat pillow pushed against the far wall.

Harry knew it was depressing, and he wanted to get Happy out of the room as quickly as possible. He didn't want to be judged anymore than he already was. "Yeah, the same school my parents went to. It's great!"

"What's your favorite subject?" Happy picked up the trunk as Harry closed it, grunting a little bit at the weight, and Harry crossed the room to grab Hedwig's cage as the two headed out the door.

Harry frowned as they got closer to the stairs, and the sound of Uncle Vernon and Tony yelling at each other echoed up the staircase. He couldn't make out the words, they were screaming over each other so much it sounded like white noise. Harry's hands began to sweat, and he almost lost his grip on Hedwig's cage.

He hated when people yelled. He hated it.

"You okay, buddy?" Happy asked, coming up behind him as they reached the bottom of the stairs and froze at what he saw. Tony was in Uncle Vernon's face, his finger pointed at the other man's face, with no regard to the shade of red Vernon's face was taking.

Harry knew that color. That's the color Vernon turned when Harry did magic he couldn't control. That's the color that lead to being locked in the cupboard under the stairs for days, and being told how worthless and stupid he was.

Harry really did not like that color.

"Now you see here, Dursley..." Tony shouted, his finger touching Vernon's nose, and Vernon slapped it away.

Harry saw red. Hedwig's cage fell from his hands, and his hands tingled.

"Don't threaten him." Harry growled out, his voice deeper than normal, and inside he was panicking.

It was happening again.

_Notnownotnow _He thought to himself, even as he crossed the room and pointed a hand at Uncle Vernon. The man's face went white, the color rapidly draining away from him and he swayed on his feet. Harry could feel the magic gathering, he knew what was coming, and Uncle Vernon did too. Harry saw Aunt Petunia and Dudley move as far away from him as they could get, his large cousin covering his backside as he raced up the stairs faster than Harry ever thought he would be able to move.

"Boy, don't you..."

He flew backwards, Harry's magic lashing out and pushing the threat to Tony as far away from the man as he could get him. Harry panted, trying to grab hold of his magic, but he wasn't able to.

He was never able to, not when he got angry like this.

Anger was bad.

He was bad.

Vernon was climbing to his feet, the wreckage of what had once been their kitchen table clinging to his clothes as he stood and coughed.

"Boy, you are going to pay for that." The obese man growled, stomping towards Harry. "You are going to pay for using your freakishness on me."

Harry could feel the magic building in him again, his nails biting into his palms as he clenched his fists.

"Stop it, Dursley. I'm taking Harry, and you'll be hearing from my attorneys for the rest." Tony stepped in front of him, blocking Harry's view of Uncle Vernon all together. He wasn't afraid, either of Harry or Uncle Vernon.

Harry had never been around someone who saw what he could do, saw how he lost control when he was angry, and wasn't scared of him.

"Stark!" Vernon called, but Tony turned his back on him and smiled down at Harry.

"You ready to get out of here, kiddo? I guess you didn't get my last letters, did you."

It wasn't a question, but Harry shook his head anyway.

"No, not since before school ended."

Tony's hand was warm on his shoulder as the businessman steered Harry out of the room, through the front door, and down the driveway to the black car waiting with the engine running.

He didn't look back.

* * *

><p>Bruce was in the middle of the jungle when it happened. His bag warm against his shoulder, the leather hand made by one of the people he had managed to save from whatever horrible virus had been spreading through last village, Bruce looked up at the sky.<p>

Hulk stirred, roaring in his mind, and a tingle ran through his body.

"It's happening again," Bruce sighed, forcing his feet to move one in front of the other as he pushed himself through the underbrush around him.

Hulk roared in his mind again, angrier than Bruce had ever heard him, but Bruce wouldn't turn around.

He was headed farther into the Amazon, further away from the humans that the Hulk would love to hurt.

He didn't care what was going on, he didn't care why he had gotten these feelings over and over again over the last eleven years, he just didn't care.

He was a monster, and he wasn't going to give himself anymore reasons for destruction than he already had.

The Hulk roared a final time, before settling in the back of Bruce's mind like a pouting toddler.

It didn't matter, the farther he got from humanity the better.

* * *

><p>"Sir? There's been an incident of underage magic," Dolores Umbridge simpered as she pushed open the door to Minister Fudge's office. The Minister glanced up at her, his quill pausing on the parchment in front of him.<p>

"And? Why are you bothering me with this?" Fudge sighed, "There's a whole department that handles that."

Delores nodded, but pushed her way into the room more.

"I know sir, but this happened in Little Whinging, Surrey." Delores placed the file gently in the front of the desk, reverently. "I thought you would want to handle this yourself."

Minister Fudge raised an eyebrow at his undersecretary, and flipped the file open quickly. His eyes widened as he took in the name and location, before slamming it shut and looking at her.

"Who else knows about this?"

She shook her head.

"No one, sir. I made sure of that."

Fudge nodded, climbing to his feet to pace around his office.

If they moved on this, before Dumbledore found out, they would be able to swipe the boy right from under him.

Cornelius Fudge was not a bad man, and he was not a stupid man, but he was a weak man. He knew that, but he surrounded himself with strong people and made himself indispensable. It was how he had gotten where he was, and it was how he was going to stay.

If he could pull this off, he could do what he should have done eleven years ago, he would never have to worry about his position again.

"Call for a meeting of the Wizengamot, Dolores." Cornelius made up his mind, "We have to get the poor boy away from that house and into a good wizarding family, he clearly hasn't learned the control he needs."

Once Cornelius gained custody of the Boy Who Lived, his position in the Wizarding World was assured.

But they would have to move fast, Dumbledore wouldn't like this.

At all.


	4. Chapter 4

**AN-Thank you for all of the awesome reviews and follows and favorites. Mucho thanks to njchrispatrick as usually for helping nudge this chapter along. **

**Warning: This chapter sets up the major differences in book two. Please don't scream "That's not how it happened". This isn't canon, and this is how it's happening in this fic. **

**Disclaimer-I still own nothing. **

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Four<strong>

Tony tapped his foot distractedly as he stared across the back of the Town Car at Harry. The boy was looking anywhere but at Tony, and it wasn't like Tony could blame him.

This hadn't gone anything like he had expected. He had expected (hoped? dreamed?) that Harry would run into his arms and let him make everything all right, but that...hadn't exactly happened.

Harry wouldn't look at him, he'd been threatened by a Walrus in a man suit, and Harry had no idea Tony was his father. The letters hadn't come through, and the big reveal Tony had thought would have time to sink in, hadn't.

He wasn't sure how this could get much worse.

"Boss? Do you want to go to the airport, or back to the hotel? Pepper said she would have the jet waiting if you chose to go that way?" Happy asked quietly, rolling down the divider between the them. Harry didn't look away from the window, and Tony considered the question.

If they left now, they would be able to get all of this awkwardness behind them quicker, and move on. Tony wouldn't have to deal with the Dursleys, he would be able to sic his overtrained and overpaid Lawyers on them and never have to think about the wastes of space again. That was the plan that Tony wanted to go with.

On the other hand, if he just left with Harry, without securing any kind of legal custody of him, this would all explode into something that he just didn't want to deal with, a point against him. And Harry..would Harry want to be pulled away from his life, and his country without even being given the chance to agree or disagree? Could Tony be one more in a long line of people that didn't take his opinion into consideration?

Tony hated being a grownup.

"The hotel, Happy, thanks." The divider rolled up smoothly without saying anything else, and Tony shifted in his seat again. Harry didn't react. "Harry? Have you ever been to London?"

It was a stupid question, Tony knew that as soon as he said it, but he couldn't help himself. Harry just nodded slowly.

"This is awkward isn't it." Tony stated, and finally got a reaction out of Harry. The boy giggled slightly, flicking his eyes towards Tony before shooting them back towards the road outside the Town Car. Tony smiled at the sound, at least his son was paying him some sort of attention now.

Not that Harry knew he was Tony's son, but the thought still counted.

"Just a little." Harry said softly, pulling his legs up off the floorboard of the car and pulling them tightly to his chest. "Did you really send me letters after I left school?"

Tony nodded quickly. He was sure that he was doing his best impression of a bobble head, but he couldn't help himself.

"I sent at least four, I may have gone a bit overboard when you didn't reply to the first. I thought you were angry with me," Tony rubbed the back of his head, sheepishly. "But I guess Hedwig just didn't get them to you."

Harry looked at him fully for the first time, biting his bottom lip. Tony tried not to squeal at how cute Harry was, but it was a close thing. The Billionaire didn't think that he had ever felt this out of control, but he didn't care.

"Hedwig had no letters at all since I got back, she went in and out, but no letters." Harry said, "I didn't think anyone could…keep owls from delivering letters."

Tony shrugged, settling more comfortably in the leather seats now that he had his son's attention on him. "We'll look into it, she may have just delivered them to Hogwarts." Tony doubted it, but he wasn't going to let Harry know what he really thought, not yet anyway.

Harry looked like he doubted what Tony was saying, but he didn't question it.

"Why did you come get me?" Harry asked, studying Tony closely. "You've never said in your letters. Even when I was small."

"I hate to tell you, you're still small kiddo," Tony said, smirking as Harry frowned. The boy was about as intimidating as a wet kitten, "I…knew James and Lily."

Tony couldn't say "Your Parents", the title capitalized in his head. They had raised him, they had the chance to know Harry when Tony was too cowardly and too afraid of himself to raise his son like he should, but he still couldn't call them his parents.

"Really?" Harry perked up, leaning across the space between them, his green eyes bright. "What were they like? Hagrid was the only person I've met that really knew them, but all he had to give me was a photo album. He couldn't really tell me stories."

Tony smiled, but it was tinged with sadness. He only hoped that Harry wouldn't hate him when the truth finally came out. If the engineer could work up the courage to tell him now that they were face to face and not over letters.

"They were…really good people," Tony tried to find the words, "Lily and I were friends from childhood. Mrs. Evans, your grandmother, worked at the Stark Industries office in Sussex, and brought Lily and Petunia," Tony sneered the word, "to work with her one day when the babysitter backed out. Lily was a few years younger than you, completely fearless."

_Stark Industries_

_Sussex, England_

_March 15__th__, 1985_

_Tony Stark was bored. Bored with a capital 'B'._

_The small genius kicked his feet idly against the legs of the chair he'd be stuck in for the last hour, the rhythmic thumping getting him a few looks from the scientists clustered around his father like dogs begging for a treat. Howard Stark never looked up. The owner and CEO of Stark Industries was well used to his son's childish tactics, and had learned long ago that giving him attention just made things worse in the long run._

_That wouldn't do for Tony Stark. If he was going to be stuck here, pulled away from school and his mom to "Learn what the business is like, since it looks like you'll be the only one I can leave the company to', someone was going to pay him attention. It didn't matter if it was his father, or one of his lackeys._

_Tony was a diva, and a diva had to have an audience._

"_I'm so sorry, Mr. Stark," a woman raced into the lab, holding the hand of a small redhead girl with another girl following her. The blond was skinny, with a pinched face, and while Tony didn't get what everyone's obsession with girls was, knew that this particular girl would never grow up to attract the 'right type of man' as his mother was always going on about. "I didn't think I would be this horribly late."_

_Tony watched with wide eyes (his mind was whirring on how to turn this situation to his advantage, as it always was) as Howard looked up from the pile of gears and detris in front of him to pin the woman with a deadly stare._

"_Mrs. Evans, was it?" Howard asked softly. The scientists around him began shifting, giving each other wide eyed looks. Tony could tell they all thought a colleague was about to fired, and he had to agree with them. That was never a tone of voice that meant good things coming from Howard Stark. "Has Stark Industries become a day care and no one told me?"_

_Mrs. Evans narrowed her eyes at her employer, grip tightening on her daughter's hand. "Dr. Evans is my proper title, not Mrs.," She stressed the title, eyes flashing, "I am sorry, Mr. Stark, but your arrival was completely unannounced and today was my day off. I was unable to get a sitter." She wasn't intimidated by Howards glare, and the billionaire was taking closer notice. "If you would rather not see the advancements in the Gamma project that we've made, I can certainly take my girls and go back home and you can see it another time."_

_Tony snickered into his hand. The Gamma project, yet another attempt of Howards to find the long lost Captain Steve Rogers, Captain America, was the whole reason they were in England to begin with. There was no way Howard would leave without seeing what he came to see, and Dr. Cecily Evans was the only one who knew the project inside and out._

"_No…no, that won't be necessary," Howard finally said, looking away from the woman's green eyed glare. "Just…do not let them get in the way." Dr. Evans nodded once. The redhead girl looked around the room with wide eyes, before pointing at Tony and saying something he couldn't make out. Before Tony knew it, the girl was grabbing her sister by the hand and tugging her over to Tony's corner. He stopped kicking his feet against the legs of the seat and stared at her._

_It wasn't often that people weren't scared of him, if not because of him but because of who he was._

"_Hello?" Tony said gingerly, not sure how he was supposed to react. She just smiled at him and stuck out a hand._

"_Hi! I'm Lily Marie Evans, this is my sister Petunia Denise Evans," the girl, Lily, said. Tony shook her hand gingerly and dropped it just as quickly. Lily Marie Evans frowned at him, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring. "Well?"_

"_Well what?" Tony asked, flabbergasted._

"_What's your name? We've told you ours, it's only polite you tell us yours."_

"_Lily!" Petunia hissed suddenly, pinching her sister's side quickly, "You know who he is!"_

_Lily glared at her sister, shaking her head wildly. "No! Mummy always said that you must introduce yourself, or you're rude. He hasn't introduced himself."_

_Tony couldn't help himself, he started laughing._

"_I'm Tony," he said cheerfully, kicking the bottom of his chair again, "Tony Stark, and I think I like you Lily Marie Evans." _

Harry blinked, a grin crossing his face as he leaned even further across the car. Tony thought absently that it was lucky Harry was so small the seat belt would have snapped a long time ago. "My grandmother was a Doctor? That's brilliant! What was her focus?"

Tony blinked. He knew Harry was smart, he had seen the grades and talking to Harry's teachers behind the Dursleys back made sure that he knew the true story, but for some reason it had never sank into Tony's brain that Harry was most likely on the road to being a genius…if he wasn't already. It was in his genes, after all. (Tony would deny to his last breath that he preened at the thought.)

"Physics and Biology, she was an expert in the field of gamma radiation," Tony said slowly, wanting to see how much Harry understood on his own.

"So she focused on..." Harry got started, his eyes lit up, before the divider between the front and back was rolling down and Happy looked at them in the mirror. The car was coming slowly to a stop. Tony glanced out the window, seeing the press lined up and waiting, and cursed under his breath.

He wasn't ready for Harry to go through this, the boy didn't even know what was going on and he was about to be hounded by the Press.

Maybe...just maybe that press conference had been a bad idea. A small one, but a mistake none the less.

"Do you want me to go around to the back, Boss? I didn't think they would be here this soon." Happy asked quietly, and Tony knew he was ready to gun the engine and get them away from there at Tony's word.

But there was no point, they had been seen, and Harry had seen them.

"Tony?" Harry asked shakily, sliding back away from the windows and the undecipherable questions that were being thrown at him. Tony cursed again.

"Sorry kid, I should have warned you," Tony sighed, sliding his sunglasses over his nose and wishing he had thought to bring a pair for Harry. That (and new clothes, Tony told himself) was the first on the long list of things that Tony was going to shower down on Harry's head the first chance he got. Tony knew that flashes from a dozen reporters could blind you for a few moments if you weren't ready. "They...kinda follow me wherever I go. Even more since the whole Iron Man mess." The car stopped completely, and Happy jumped out of the front seat to open the door for Harry. "Just, stay close to Happy and keep your head down. Ignore what ever the vultures say, none of it's important and they'll just turn your words around anyway. Okay?"

Harry nodded, though his face was white, and took a deep breath.

"Okay."

Happy opened the door, and they stepped into the crush. Harry grabbed his arm for a moment, fingers tight in his suit jacket before they fell away, and Tony wished he could turn and hustle him back into the car and away from all of this, but that would be worse in the long run.

"Happy." Tony snapped, glaring as one of the reporters got too close to Harry, shouting something that couldn't be understood in the kids face.

"On it, boss." Happy blocked Harry in, pushing the reporter back with his bulk. Hotel security guards, well used to the fame and fortune set, were swarming down the steps until they were encased in a wall of black, and Tony glared at everyone who shouted a question at him until they were safely inside the elevator and on the way to the penthouse.

"Is...is it always like that?" Harry asked shakily, leaning against the wall of the elevator. He was blocked into the corner by Tony and Happy. The billionaire admitted to himself that he may be being just a little bit over protective, but he couldn't help it.

"Unfortunately yes, kiddo." Tony said. He was furiously texting Pepper, and he knew that the redhead would have the press in a vise within a few hours, but it was too late. "But things will die down, they always do."

Tony hoped.

* * *

><p>The hallways cleared as Lucius Malfoy made his way towards Minister Fudge's office. His cane clicked with every step, and he smirked as eyes inevitably moved towards it.<p>

It was good to be feared.

It was very good to be feared.

"Good morning, Dolores," he smiled at the Minister's Undersecretary, hating every inch of her but she was a necessary evil. Third daughter from a small, and insignificant Pureblood family, she was nonetheless the easiest way for him to gain access to the minister whenever he needed to.

"Lord Malfoy," Umbridge simpered, closing the file and fixing him with a smile she undoubtedly thought to be charming. He thought she looked like a simpering toad looking for a particular fat fly to gobble up. "What can I do for you today?"

"I need to see Cornelius, as soon as possible. Is he in his office?" Lucius didn't smile, and it wasn't really a request, which is why when the smile faded from Umbridge's face like it had never been, he was surprised.

"I'm afraid the Minister is not available at the moment. " She turned her attention back to her desk, pulling a scroll towards her and beginning to unroll it like he wasn't there, "I can inform him that you wish an appointment when he returns, but I am unsure as to when that is going to be."

"Where the bloody hell is he?" Lucius exclaimed, cursing himself under his breath as eyes bored into his back. Everyone would love to see the Head of the Malfoy family lose his cool in public, and he couldn't risk that. "I am sorry, Dolores. It is just this matter is particularly close to my heart and I was hoping Cornelius could help...spearhead things a bit."

Umbridge sniffed, and Lucius didn't know where this new attitude was coming from but he did not approve of it in the slightest. She was insignificant, she should be bowing in the face of a Lord from a Most Ancient and Noble House. Cornelius needed him, he needed the backing that only Lucius and others like him could give, and if Umbridge wasn't careful she would find herself lacking. Secretaries could always be replaced.

"Minister," She stressed the title, "Fudge is dealing with an urgent matter that will be announced at the appropriate time. Unfortunately, he will not be able to handle other matters until further notice."

It was a clear dismissal, and Lucius growled, tightening his grip on the handle of his cane.

More people were gathering, and if it wasn't for that, she would have found herself a smear on the back wall, but Lucius reined himself in.

"Thank you, undersecretary. If you could let the minister know I would very much like to speak with him at his earliest opportunity, I would be eternally grateful." Giving the woman a small bow, he backed away and turned around on his heel.

'Ungrateful blood traitor," Lucius hissed to himself, throwing glares at anyone who dared to try and speak to him, and practically stomped into the lift.

"Malfoy."

Closing his eyes, Lucius wondered if today could get any worse. The way things were going, he would arrive home to a ministry raid and Narcissa having one of her episodes.

"Weasley." The lift started, and the two men tried their best not to speak to each other as it moved them towards the top level and the floo points.

"The Minister not at your beck and call for once?" Arthur Weasley said suddenly, a cruel smirk on his face. Arthur Weasley was generally a nice man, at least that was the gossip around the halls, but Lucius knew better.

There was a reason there was a blood feud between the two families, and it wasn't just one sided.

"Oh Arthur," Lucius sneered the name, "you are just jealous your family no longer has the contacts it once had. It must have been hard, taking the blame for all of that...nasty business. The minister has to concern himself with...important people." Lucius looked the other wizard up and down, sneering at the clearly hand mended robes and shabby shoes.

"I would much rather be unimportant than in the Dark Lord's pocket, Malfoy."

Lucius flinched, wanting to clap a hand over the mark on his arm, but unwilling to give the man the satisfaction.

"Oh Arthur, you know I wasn't in my right mind. No one could resist an Imperious by the Dark Lord, after all. Better wizards than you have tried."

"All that says is that you are good at lying," Arthur sneered, still not looking at him. "Even at school, you hung on his coat tails."

There was nothing Lucius could say to that, that wouldn't incriminate himself anyway.

"Suit yourself Weasley, we all know what your opinion is worth."

Okay, so maybe there was something that he could say.

Lucius shifted in the lift, trying to put as much space between the two of them as he could, and bumped into the side. The book, the very important book, slammed into the side of his thigh and Lucius had an epiphany.

It was petty, and if the Dark Lord ever came back he would be in more trouble than this was truly worth, but...it would be very gratifying. If he could finagle a raid...even better.

Lucius moved quietly, watching Arthur's eyes never leave the numbers slowly clicking down as they headed towards the surface, and pulled the diary out of his inner robes as quickly as he could. He would have to time this right, make Weasley think he dropped the journal from the large pile of files and scrolls that he was carrying.

But if he did, he would find much more amusement than just simply hanging on to it.

The two wizards competed to be the first out of the doors as they whooshed open, and Lucius deliberately knocked into the other man, sending the stack of files he was carrying flying.

"Oh, I am sorry, Arthur." Lucius sneered, bending over and picking up a few files, sliding the journal in between them and handing them all over. Arthur took them distractedly, clearly trying to get away from Lucius like he carried the original strain of Dragonpox. "My best to Molly and your...brood."

Smirking to himself, Lucius strode down the hallway towards the apparition point, if he was anyone else he would be whistling.

* * *

><p>Arthur turned the journal over and over in his hands as he headed up the stairs towards Ginny's room. He wasn't sure where it had come from, it was in the stack of files and paperwork confiscated from a raid a few days ago, but none of the spells he'd cast revealed anything other than it being a journal.<p>

"Ginny?" Arthur knocked on his only daughter's door, waiting patiently for her to open it. She was eleven, ready for Hogwarts, but he wanted to make sure she was going to be okay. There hadn't been a Weasley daughter in over four centuries, and sometimes Arthur felt like he was in over his head with her. Molly could talk to her, but it was like there was something keeping Arthur himself from understanding her.

He hoped, since she couldn't talk to him and she couldn't talk to her brothers, the journal would give her something she could talk to at Hogwarts.

"Yes, Dad?" Ginny blinked at him, her red hair pulled up in a sloppy ponytail, sleepy eyed. It was late, and he probably should have waited until in the morning, but he wouldn't be there and he wanted her to have it now.

He didn't know why, but he knew it was important.

"Hey honey, are you excited about Hogwarts?"

She nodded, looking at him like he had grown three heads and six arms, as always.

"Yeah, but that's not until September. I haven't even gotten my letter yet."

Arthur shook his head. "You'll get it, love, anyone who has been on the end of your bat boogie knows you deserve a place at Hogwarts," He shifted on his feet and held out the journal, "I wanted to give you this. You know, so you can...write in it, or whatever it is girls do with journals."

She took it, tracing the leather front cover with a finger for a moment. It was nicer than he could have afforded on his salary, and it was worth not knowing where it came from when she looked up at him with a blinding smile.

"Thank you daddy!" She flung her arms around his neck and squeezed, "I love it!"

Arthur watched her race back into her room, flopping at the second hand desk in the corner and opening the journal to the front page, as he leaned in to pull her door shut.

Well, it looked like he wasn't a total horror of a father to Ginny after all. At least, not until she started dating.

His wand hand twitched at the thought.


End file.
